Nintendo has tried its hands in many things. Its lasts attempt at F2P were pretty cool. We got Rusty's Real Deal Baseball and Steel Diver: Sub Wars. The former required to buy each individual game, you could haggle in-game and just buy the ones you thought were interesting. The latter gave everyone an awesome Strategic First Person Shooter with the full purchase granting more single-player content and more access to subs and crew. However, I never felt as if I needed to purchase the full title to really enjoy the game. Pokemon Shuffle can be thought of similarly, but it does require a different mindset.

Pokemon Shuffle for the 3DS is a variation of the match-3 gameplay that was popular facebook and then smartphones. The "twist" is that you match three or more of the same pokemon to unleash an attack against another. Once you defeat a pokemon, you have a chance to capture it and then use it in your team. Many pokemon traits carry over from the main games, such as elemental weakness, leveling up, and Mega Evolution. I still even feel the need to continuallly tap the screen or A while trying to catch a pokemon. However, the limiting factor the Pokemon Company has placed on the game is the heart limit which in turn determines your play time per session.

Either wait or pay up if you want to play more

You start off with 5 hearts and each stage you play requires you to use one. Once you use the first heart, a 30 minute timer counts down to replenish that heart. However, you can only recover one heart per 30 minutes. In my initial playtime, a match can take an average of 1-2 minutes, longer as you progress, so you have to wait 2 hours and a half just for about 10-30 minutes of gameplay. Either that, or you can spend some jewels to replenish your hearts. If you run out of jewels, then you can actually purchase more from the eshop, with a limit of 150. Another way you can obtain jewels is to streetpass with other people who own the game. If you defeat a trainer for the first time, you receive another jewel. There is also a "Check In" feature that can grant you some items but you can only do it once per 24 hours. To be honest, I saved 10 out of the 12 jewels the game gives you. You can beat the game without them.

When you do battle, you are given only a certain number of moves to defeat a pokemon. Some pokemon like Eevee will grant you 15, others like Torchic only give you 5 moves to win. However, if you plan your moves right and if you are super lucky, you can pull off a large enough combo to win within a couple of moves. If you run out of moves during a fight, then the game will ever-so-kindly ask if you would like to spend a jewel for five more turns.

Few moves and many disruptions

It's easy at first to dismiss the game as exceedingly simple but I've found a few layers of complexity and strategy hidden beneath those smiling faces of monsters. In addition to the move restriction, different pokemon will use various disruptions to make your game more difficult. One disruption freezes an icon in place while another replaces pokemon with blocks or even other pokemon. Now more pokemon might sound good, but this game is actually where having less pokemon is better, hence the Complexity -1 item costs 9000 coins. I certainly needed it to defeat Mewtwo at the very end. Speaking of items, if you use the in-game currency of coins before a battle, you gain a respective boost whether it be 5 more moves or starting with Mega Evolution. However, that strategizing begins even sooner than that. When you select a stage, you can edit your team to try and take advantage of various weaknesses or abilities. There is handy optimization button which has the same pick a team for you based of power and elemental strengths. I tend to use that a lot, but I also make fine changes to my team from time to time. For example, the optimization button likes me to have Audino for support, but I like to use Kangaskan and try to Mega Evolve him. Eevee is slightly weaker than Audino, but his ability speeds up the Mega Evolution process. On the other hand, if there are only 3 moves, then I might as well use Audino.

To add to the challenge, there is an expert mode that has you fight pokemon under a time limit instead and in that case, spending a jewel at the end grants you only 15 more seconds. If that sounds messed up, I will agree with you. While you could argue that the extra chance gives you a chance to catch that pokemon, I find it hard to argue that it is worth the equivalent of 5 hearts. It's even worse when you consider the alternative is spend a jewel before hand, get 3000 coins, buy the extra 10 seconds and you probably also have enough for a great ball to increase the odds of catching that pokemon. On the bright side, if you do obtain enough jewels, you end up with enough gameplay for a while (12 jewels gives 80 hearts). When looking at the cost, that's about $9 when you buy the package set, roughly the cost of a fully downloaded title like Pokemon Battle Trozei. To be honest, I probably would buy that game before buying so many jewels for this title. At least streetpass in combination with the Nintendo Zone gives another way to obtain jewels, I just think they could have at least made you start with 7 hearts instead of 5 since starting with 10 would probably mean no one would ever buy the jewels.

the middle one is slightly more expensive than Pokemon Battle Trozei. Just get that instead and play in tandem

If you do need a reason to connect online, I would say the main reason would be the special events. For example, the first few days featured a stage where you could earn extra coins which in turn can be spent on great balls or other helpful pre-game items. Currently happening is a "Daily Pokemon" event where you can capture a different pokemon once a day. In addition to that, until March 9, you can obtain Mew! I'm curious to see what other special events the Pokemon Company has planned. It's certainly a reason to open the game every day.

It might be tempting to try and catch every pokemon the first time around. My advice is to resist the urge. Great Balls are expensive and that money can afford two helpful items in the hard battles. Save your coins for when you require those items. Also, I count on those missed pokemon to add replay value after beating the 150 stages. Also, some pokemon just never get used. After catching Wartortle there was never a good opportunity to use him. There were only 3 more fire types, and by then, I had better pokemon to use.

So how is the best way to enjoy this game? I found watching a TV show and playing during the breaks work nicely. If I feel like waiting the full 2 and a half hours, then I can easily play Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate during that time. Or I can play a stage or two and then go for a quick jog. So the only thing this game is not conducive to for the tightly-budget or more fiscally responsible is long play sessions. On the other hand, it's easy to start up and play for 2 or 5 minutes at a time, meaning it's a good game for small periods of waiting like for your girlfriend to use the bathroom in a mall. Perhaps you'll even get some streetpasses. After all, it's not a horrible game, it's just annoyingly designed as an F2P to try and make money from the impatient. So parents, I highly suggest limiting the online purchasing feature for this game or at least make sure your kids don't have access to a credit card. On the bright side, I think this is a neat demo for the upcoming retail game Puzzles and Dragons Z/Super Mario coming out soon.

If you want more information, you can visit the official Pokemon Shuffle Website. I think they do a good job of explaining the features and gameplay.

Every game I get to review, I want it to be good. Some developers are such stand-up people that I really hope their game is great when I get around to reviewing it. Gunman Clive 2 fits this bill. The game is even more impressive when you consider it was done by one man with the exception of testing, translation, and music. This guy definitely deserves all of the praise I'm going to give him because this game's polish is far superior to any triple-A title from last year and better yet, he did it all by himself. I missed the first game, but after playing the second entry in the series, I might just go ahead and pick that up too -- seriously, it's that good.

Graphics and Music

As any picture shows, the graphics are pretty distinct and have a neat hand-drawn feeling. The animation is smooth and varied and the color coding is a great help. To think the same man who programmed the game also did a good job with the visuals makes me jealous (but in a good way) for his talents. However, I would rather focus your attention to the music as the real star here. This is the one major thing not done by Bertil Hörberg. As soon as I started the game I placed my ear to listen to the opening screen's memorable tune. It gave me a feeling that rivals the classic TheLegend of Zelda theme with its sweet opening. Great music makes you excited about the game even when not playing it and this album does the job! Actually, if nothing else go buy the soundtrack on bandcamp for $1.50. It's totally worth more. This comes from a guy who only bought the soundtracks for games like LoZ: Ocarina of Time, Xenoblade Chronicles, Okami, Kid Icarus Uprising, and To the Moon. This is a worthy addition to that library.

Gameplay

The simplest way I can describe Gunman Clive 2 is that it is to Mega Man what Bit Trip Runner is to Super Mario Bros. The levels are short, but generally require precision because one platforming mistake spells death which means doing the whole level over again. However, the game is quick to respawn players and the levels are really short so this isn't as bad as it may sound. Most of the time I died because I kept making the same stupid mistake or tried rushing too much. If it still sounds too rough for you don't worry because Bertil's got you covered. Select Easy Mode and you'll instead respawn to where you last touched ground at the cost of some health, which is plentiful in Easy Mode. I wish I knew about that system beforehand, but then I might not have felt so accomplished for beating the game on Normal. Then again, since the game is a good challenge even on Easy, you can still feel accomplished when you reach the credits.

The platforming is spot on and I'll attribute this to perfect programming on the 3DS system. This game absolutely belongs on the 3DS if for nothing else but the fact that you have both the Circle Pad and the D-Pad. For most of the game, I defaulted to the D-Pad for the solid platforming but when the game plays with gravity late in the game you will want the circle pad. I also found it amazing how the platforms could be so small or just seemingly out of reach but I was generally able to land on them. If you are the type of gamer that has trouble with platforming, don't worry because Bertil's got you covered again. Select your character at the start to be Ms. Johnson and you got Princess Peach with a gun complete with the float ability. Even if you do die, there is one aspect I'm surprised many developers have not adopted already; the music does not restart! For that, I sing odes to Bertil for letting us keep our sanity and enjoy the awesome tunes Arne Hörberg composed.

Each boss has its unique patterns, but still a challenge nonetheless

If you listen to me talk long enough about the 3D Legend of Zelda games, you'll probably hear me comment about how the enemies are done so perfectly that they only take a small number of hits and never over-populate the screen. The same is true in Gunman Clive 2. You never tire of fighting even when they reappear if you return to the environment a la Mega Man. Only the bosses take a lot of damage and are a real challenge. It's also worth mentioning how varied the bosses are ranging from a samurai to a t-rex to a giant robot. I died plenty of times fighting these bosses, but thanks to the lightning-fast respawn time and the fact that boss levels are their own stage, you eventually memorize the patterns and hone the skills necessary to triumph over them.

My chief complaint would be the behind-the-back levels. It's cool that you get to ride a pterodactyl, but switching to flight mindset is pretty hard and I'm sure you'll die a few times before you get the hang of it and soar through it. To make it easier, I recommend using the circle pad for those two levels. For the horse one, the d-pad is the best due to the nature of aiming your gun as well as accelerating. Overall, this game is solid and I have yet to find a bug. Much laud to the one-man studio!

It's a cool concept, but I found it a bit hard to handle

Replayability

While I found the game difficult and occasionally frustrating the first time through as I played it on Normal, discovering the mechanics in Easy mode and different characters makes it easy for me to replay and enjoy the game again and again. The different difficulty levels compounded with the different characters form a good excuse to test my skills again and again. I'm curious to see how it's possible to beat the game on hard using only Chieftan Bob's Spear or even Duck Mode where you control a duck and try to fly through the level.

Overall

Tired of waiting for Capcom to finally release a good Mega Man game? This game is for you. It's perfect on the 3DS with solid platforming, music, and bosses. It's friendly to those who make mistakes but you still feel accomplished even if you play it on Easy with the Gun Version of Princess Peach. By the way, did I mention you get to ride a panda and a triceratops while hunting ducks? This game feels absolutely crazy, but it is awesome!

When it comes to describing something with a few words, poetry is the way to go. If you want to use as few words as possible, it's hard to beat the Japanese Haiku. Tengami by Nyamyam appears to aim to be like that. It's short but an interesting experience that I enjoy the more I ponder it, just like a good poem.

Graphics

One thing you will probably hear about Tengami a lot is its graphics. Using a Japanese picture book style, the graphics are already timeless and fresh to the eyes of gamers. I might want to compare it to the beautiful Okami, but the art styles are distinctly different and both are refreshing. The game works at a slow pace so even when the framerate would drop for an instant, I was never disturbed by it (I think it happened around three times when changing scenes).

I can't say there's much for a story. The cutscenes use the same graphical engine as the game but I wonder if the game has a deeper meaning. My first thought when I saw the opening scene was that the man was dead. I wonder if that was on purpose especially when I saw the credits. Nevertheless, it is a beautifully rendered game.

The graphics alone help make me glad to have this game in my library

Music

Even though the composer's name does not appear to bear any connection to the Japanese, that does not mean he cannot effectively use their instruments. The music is memorable even if it is just because it's refreshing. I might just be tempted to purchase it myself, something that very few games have made me consider (such as Okami and Xenoblade Chronicles). Note: if you watch the video below, it will spoil how to solve some of the puzzles. So if you want to be a purist, then just listen but don't watch until after you beat the game.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zop9DiG3uyQ

Gameplay

One of the wonders of Tengami is its unique gameplay by employing picture book techniques. When playing with the diorama, you slide things around and the environment will emerge in a simple, but classic fold-out style. This is done by moving to small glowing spots on the map. Then on either the left or right edges (right tends to mean going forward, and left for going back), tap and slide across the screen. The environment can also be modified without changing rooms. Most of the puzzles involve tapping objects or swapping environmental pieces such as a waterfall to unfold a bridge. The only time I really had a problem with this was in the very beginning when I tried sliding something in the wrong direction. If something can be tapped or pulled, a small circle surrounds it. As a general rule of thumb, the puzzles involve paying attention and sometimes going about slowly so that you can pay attention. If you have trouble, you can consult the walkthrough on the official website or ask a specific question on Miiverse.

As you turn the page, the diorama unfolds into a different room

The character moves fairly slowly, but if he moved any faster, that might betray the essence of the game so I was satisfied with the speed. Sure, when I was confused and moving back and forth, I would have liked a small boost, but once I found that I could just leave my finger on the edge of the screen and occasionally tap (yay for big hands), I was okay. You can use the stylus, but the taps are also fairly accurate with just your finger, even when moving to those small circles. I found that to be very impressive. If you want more accuracy, then the stylus is helpful. Also worth noting, none of the regular buttons do anything. This is purely a touchscreen game. If you want to exit, you tap the circle in the top left corner and that will bring up your menu. There you have your options, exit, and even occasional hints if you don't disable them (there's one if there was a "?" in the circle).

You might find it hard to believe this is an indie game because it is well polished. The music is good, the graphics are sweet, and I didn't find any bugs in my initial playthrough. When I would go on a section of the map that could be swapped, that functional would be disabled until I left that spot (except for the boat, of course). The character also makes smart maneuvers when moving to where you want to go. I could tap a location with various obstacles in the way, and he would take the best route, as long as it is in the same screen in my experience.

Replayability

There is no heavy tutorial for this game, not even in the manual, making it easy to jump in a replay the game. This shows Nyamyam's respect for the player's time and effort to make it easy for people to pick up again and again. This doesn't mean you are left alone. Hints will pop up in the beginning telling you to tap and slide and that is all you need to do. If you tap on some objects, you may also receive a hint. Speaking of hints, you can tap the top left corner when it has a "?" and you can get a hint. For those who think the game has deep thoughts, it might be worth exploring by replaying the game a few times, but I don't think that's a requirement to enjoy it.

You don't need to tap so close to the character to get him to move. cover larger distances with fewer taps

Overall

The game costs $10 and takes up about 338 MB of space. Being a 3 hour game, it might be hard to justify the purchase but it is an experience. I actually find myself liking the game the more I think back on it. Some people might ask if it is like a Japanese version of Journey, but I can't answer that. I liked the music and the use of Japanese instruments like in Okami. The puzzles require observation and sometimes patience. When we received the code for our game, the developers said,

"When we created Tengami we envisioned the player to play Tengami in bed before going to sleep or in the afternoon on the sofa with a hot beverage. Take your GamePad to your favourite relax spot in the flat, put the headphones on and have some time to yourself. Tengami is deliberately a short game, we want you to be able to play it in one or two sessions. So don’t stress or worry about review deadlines and if you get stuck there is always a Walkthrough to consult. Just take your time and think of Tengami as a bed time game to guide you into beautiful dreams."

When thought of in the sense of a picture book, I can imagine this being a game I can go back too over and over like a little kid asking his mom to read the same story before bed. The idea of a game that just requires tapping and sliding makes this an interesting experience. I don't know if there is much benefit to buying this on the Wii U instead of the iPad beyond having it on the big screen, but at least there are miiverse stamps you can use. If anything, it is a game that I feel you can play before going to bed so it is a great fit for both the iPad and Wii U. My recommendation is for people who enjoy Japanese art and music, can appreciate the art of unfolding objects into dioramas, are patient, enjoy puzzles, and/or don't mind a short, unexciting, but I think a good experience.

10 Stamps to collect. Can you find them all?

Hint:

There is one puzzle that might confuse people who don't know the Kanji symbols. You are supposed to count somethings but unless you know Japanese counting system, I can see how it can be confusing. So here is the system for 1-10 in that order. 一、二、三、四、五、六、七、八、九、十 They are displayed in that order in the game, but I think it's understandable that someone might not realize that.

Ballpoint Universe: Infinite is a fine example of Wii U owners being spoiled. Whenever I get a new game, I don't always have control over the tv so I naturally play them Gamepad only. When I tried that today but couldn't get anywhere, I initially thought, "How could Nintendo allow this broken game on the eShop?" It wasn't until I stepped back and realized it might need both screens that I finally got to play. The result was an unexpected surprise shooter combined with a tedious and frustrating platformer.

Story

The story of Ballpoint Universe is a mystery at first. I'm actually still a little confused about the whole thing. It appears to be a war between doodles and "logical art" but there appears to be a twist in the end and yet it isn't. If I sounded confusing right there, that's exactly how it was. I did find some humor in the game, but I feel like mostly only computer programmers would understand since the lines were really a program script. Other than that, there isn't much else to say other than the story tries to point you to the next mission, though sometimes it does a poor job on that as well.

Graphics

The art style is unique. I actually thought it was pretty cool. It has a high school doodle vibe and it works. You control perhaps the simplest doodle and fight against more artistic drawings that I wish I could draw. Okay, maybe there were only 2 enemy units that I thought were cool, but otherwise the idea works.

However, the rest of the world has its charm

For the graphics, it mostly appears on the TV screen; sometimes with a dynamic camera while the gamepad has a simplified version in the form of a map. This map comes in handy for a variety of reasons. First, the graphics on the TV can be overwhelming and hide the path. Second, the viewing angle is too small for some platforming, though sometimes the gamepad doesn't have it much better. Third, it helps you find the hidden Golden Sketches thanks to the usual wider view. The situation changes when you battle as more important detail is on the TV while only the combat is on the gamepad. I preferred the gamepad, but I would look at the TV for Health, Overload, and Ink.

Sound

When I first turned on the game and attempted my gamepad only play, I learned to appreciate sound. The game's music may be run of the mill, but it works just fine. A game without sound is a less pleasant experience than one with decent music.

Gameplay

There was a time when you needed to discover on your own how to play. There was no 15 page long text tutorial, but instead you simply pressed buttons until you figured the system out. However, those days were accompanied by a physical manual you could turn to if necessary. Ballpoint Universe: Infinite does not even have the manual. While you can find out everything about gameplay you need to know by experimenting, I found the lack of a manual disheartening.

As I mention a few times over, the platforming is frustrating and tedious. Why do I repeat this? Because the game makes it so you won't forget it. Since you can only reach your destination via platforming, you have to travel all over the world and if you get lost, then it is a nightmare. Some characters might mention where I needed to go, but it isn't obvious where that place is exactly unless you remember some other character telling you "This is it." This is even worse if you load a saved game. Right as I beat the game, my system froze for the first time since I bought it. When I reloaded my save file, I found I had to reopen some paths I had already done just to progress to the end again. If there was a shortcut, then I could not find it. On the bright side, the developer did insert a lot of save points to try and relieve the frustrations.

Where to go now?

The highlight of the game is the shooter missions. You control a little ship with four customizable parts and shoot or slash through enemies and collecting ink. Sounds simple? It is, but I actually had fun with it. I would test myself on obtaining as much ink as possible without losing a life. If I failed to reach the Gold Status, I knew I could come back later with better weapons so I had no problems. Sure, the lack of a manual or tutorial made things a little confusing at first, but I eventually learned the controls and planned my goals for new equipment.

Ready? Go!

Once you beat a mission, you can replay it easily from the pause menu and obtain the bonuses. If you find the character who gave you the mission, then you can replay it that way as well. The big prize for each mission is a Gold Sketch which is obtained by having 5 lives at the end of the mission. I haven't figured out if there is something special about collecting them all yet, but it's fun collecting as it is.

Replayability

Since it's easy to replay the missions once you unlock them, the game bears some replayability. While the developers tried to reward the tedious platforming by hiding Golden Sketches, there isn't any joy left once you do find them, thus the easy Mission Replay is essential. If you tire of the missions, you can try the Infinite Wave challenge found in the Home Garden, which is where you start off when you load a game.

This sounds like a High School Student's daydream

Glitches

As I played through the game, there were a few occasions where I encountered some glitches. Only the freeze at the end forced me to shut down the Wii U. Some glitches actually helped me progress while one forced me to return to the "Home Garden" in order to progress. I also encountered a few occasions where the A button did nothing but it was fixed if I moved to a new area.

Overall

I was pleasantly surprised by Ballpoint Universe: Infinite. Sure, my expectations were low at first, but for a $5 game, this worked fairly nicely and better than some $15 games I've played. There is plenty to unlock, purchase, or levels to master. While the individual missions might be easy, you can try to go through the Infinite Wave challenge which you can find in your "Home Garden." My recommendation is for sidescrolling shooters who are also patient platformers. If the developers decide to update the game, I believe it can greatly benefit from a wide area map option and being able to warp to old areas.

Mega Man has been laying low for a while now, but his legacy still lives on. The developers over at Inti Creates, along with Keiji Inafune, have melded their collective experience from Mega Man Zero, ZX, and Mega Man9 and 10 and formed a brand new IP known as Azure Striker GUNVOLT. The results of this collaboration is a daring game that learns from the past while making needed strides towards the future. Note: This review originally appeared at Always Nintendo.

Story

The game takes place in a world where an ancient organization called the Sumeragi controls the world. Its main source of is the development of Adepts who threaten the peace. However, in this world, the Sumeragi are the true villains, plotting to use the Muse to gain absolute control and it's up to Gunvolt and the organization QUILL to stop them.

The storyline is essentially a basic anime plot. A lot of the dialog is outside of the gameplay, though maybe half of the dialog is found within the levels. If you don't care much for the story or exchanges, a simple press of START will skip the scene, which instantly improves replay value. However, I do find the story interesting enough to at least go through it once. I also appreciate being able to re-read the story by selecting the corresponding level.

Much of the dialog is found between missions

Something I found interesting--even though I didn't notice it in my initial run--is that the bosses appear to be based on the Seven Deadly Sins instead of just the clichéd elements trope. Whether they are perfect representations, however, is another question. You can kind of see these ideas in the quick monologues before each fight, but a few associations are a bit of a stretch, especially Envy. Now that I think about it, the theme probably makes the character even more shallow than my first impressions may have suggested.

I won't provide spoilers, but the game does end on a cliffhanger unless you collect all the Jewels, so players might feel betrayed by this. I know my first impression was that it was an incomplete story. This might be to help encourage players to search for said gems much like the Chaos Emeralds in the Sonic the Hedgehog series, but at least in those games you were still awarded with an ending even if you didn't collect them all.

Graphics

The game graphically looks and feels like a Mega Man Zero or ZX entry. There's detailed artwork seen in the cutscenes and promotional art, but the actual game consists entirely of sprites. I would have liked to have seen a greater evolution of tired 32-bit look, but this is admittedly a smaller-scale game and certainly not trying to reinvent the wheel, as it were.

Before its release, there was a rather comical controversy regarding the coverage of Gunvolt's abdominal section, but, to be honest, I mostly agree with Inti Creates' localization. The ponytail alone might make people question if Gunvolt is a girl, but since he's decently clothed, it helps reinforce that he's just shockingly cool dude. Though I would have preferred to skip the ponytail as well, I do appreciate the Zero reference.

The trademark ponytail was left intact in the western release

Sound

Despite its release stateside, the voice clips are solely in Japanese and, honestly, I prefer it that way. When I play a game in my native tongue, hearing the same phrase over and over again quickly becomes annoying. With foreign dialects, however, I am curious about what they are saying, but I can also easily ignore it and focus on the gameplay. I will say though that the simple inclusion of voice clips does add a pleasant layer of polish to the overall product.

The music is fitting if not somewhat run-of-the-mill. You don't really notice the music too much until one of the eight "Anthems" begin to play, which features vocals and a heavy techno beat. The track captures the feeling of a Japanese anime climax, which makes things interesting since it plays during those blood-pumping moments of intensity. It plays either when Lumen saves you or when you reach a high Kudos combo. I do really appreciate this concept though and think it's something action anime fans would enjoy.

Gameplay

Anyone who has played any of the Mega Man Zero or ZX games might be wondering what makes this game unique. Frankly, the whole combat system is, well, different. While dashing with L , jumping with B, and shooting with Y might seem familiar, being tied to the central mechanic, lightning-infused powers, is actually quite liberating. Gunvolt's gun does very little damage as its main purpose is to "tag" opponents, then promptly utilize lightning with the press of R or A--R feeling very natural, might I add--to finish them off.

The core of Azure Striker GUNVOLT lies in the flashfield ability. You have three gauges: HP for health, EP for electricity, and SP for skills. The EP is the main thing you need to worry about as it is essential for your flashfield ability, which is how you attack. After tagging enemies with your gun up to three times, using the flashfield will send a lightning attack with power according to the respective number of tags. Also, any enemy that enters your circle will take damage, which can even stop physical projectile attacks. However, if you use the ability for too long, you'll quickly run out of EP. As long as you have EP (and if a certain pendant is equipped), you can automatically use a technique called "prevasion" to dodge attacks. With other equipment, you can also use EP for powers like double jumping or air dashing.

Looks complicated, but it's pretty simple

Careful players won't have to worry about refilling the EP as it occurs automatically. If you run out, however, then you have to wait a while before you can use any EP techniques, leaving you completely vulnerable. As a side note, prevasion does not work if you are using the flashfield. If you need to recharge quickly, just double tap Down, though in some situations it's harder than you might expect. In this regard, you could say this game rewards the player's skill and patience.

The game features a leveling up system not seen in most platformers: when you level up, you gain extra HP and potentially earn a new skill. Before each mission, you are able to change which skills you have equipped. These skills can be really handy in a pinch, ranging from a devastating attack to recovering full health and everything in between. You have three SP, but they recharge over time, so if you pace it right, you can ultimately use them quite a bit in a single run.

Something that's fairly unique is the death system in that the player has infinite lives and will retain any gained experience points. The game has optional checkpoints from where respawn after a death, but there is also a chance that Lumen will resurrect you. If you have a good relationship with Joule (i.e. talk to her in the menu), the chances of this happening will increase. As I mentioned above, the music changes into something anime epic, but you also gain super-charged powers. You don't need to worry about EP, you can just air hop, air dash, and flashfield as much as you want. These moments seem most reminiscent of a thrilling anime--and it's awesome for it. While you would think this would make things too easy--and to some extent, it does--you can still die just as easily even with "Anthem" in effect.

There's also a pretty satisfying scoring system present in Gunvolt. For example, the final level score is based off the score you gained in the level and multiplied by a factor based off your clear time. I personally have only gotten one S and one A rank through my playtime and that's because it's a real challenge to achieve these higher marks. One way to improve your score is to gather Kudos. When you attack enemies for a long time without getting hit using any offensive skill, hit a checkpoint, or complete a mission, you tally up a combo meter. If you accomplish any of these three tasks, the amount is calculated and added to your score. I personally have trouble getting to 1000, but there are multiple ways to earn Kudos.

Even though you can go through the whole game with the gear you begin with, you might want to synthesize some new ones. Even though the store begins with only a few items, synthesizing one item would unlock more. Something cool the developers implemented was a system for unlocking materials at the end of each mission. However, like Monster Hunter, the chances of obtaining the materials you want ban be slim. Fortunately, you can increase the chances by collecting medals during a mission and earning a good rank while another way of acquiring materials and money is to take on assigned challenges.

Before you do a mission, you can select three challenges to take on. And since there is no penalty for failing said tasks, players might as well select them. The critique I have with this is that you cannot select challenges associated with a specific mission until after completing the mission once. I think this is to help players feel comfortable with exploring the level first before attempting to do speed runs (which comprise of a lot of the challenges), but for something like blowing up crates, I did that instinctively during my first attempt.

Can you get to 1000 Kudos without getting hit?

Speaking of the bosses, if you played Mighty Gunvolt, you will recognize a three of them. Even the patterns of attack are the same though there are a few extra moves. I found the other bosses to be well varied. In the classic sense, sporadic attack patterns seem impossible to dodge at first glance, but then you begin feeling out the rhythm of battle and those patterns are identifiable. There were a few occasions where I felt it truly was impossible to dodge an attack but using a well-timed offensive skill or prevasion would help rectify the situation.

To reach the postgame, you'll need to collect Jewels--seven to be exact, one for each main Sumeragi mission. As I mentioned earlier, these are required to get the game's true ending. They are often well hidden, though there's at least a few Jewels in plain sight. If you pick up one up, you need to successfully complete the level in order to collect it. In my first run-through, I found four of seven and--with a few more replays--I eventually found the other three. I do appreciate that the hunt for Jewels makes plodding through challenges more enticing and effectively doubles as an avenue for an added layer of exploration that is really reflected in the game's overall level design.

Jewels are a girl's best friend

Replayability

Despite the main campaign being under five hours long, Inti Creates constructed a highly replayable product. In older Mega Man titles, once a boss was defeated they were eliminated from the stage select until a new file was created. GUNVOLT alleviates all this by keeping stages completely intact including bosses even when you've completed the level. Add in the easy to skip dialog, challenges, various gear, and tricky Jewels and you've definitely got some solid replay value here and a truly enjoyable game to master. Even after you unlock the real ending, there are four additional special missions to unlock for the hardcore players. And if you want to start from the beginning, you have four save files you can choose from.

Overall

Despite being a fairly short and concise game, Inti Creates crammed quite a lot of content into Azure Striker GUNVOLT. I'd say the main selling point here is the spiritual successor nature of the title--GUNVOLT really feels like Mega Man's weird distant cousin, but in a good way. Those who enjoyed the Mega Man Zero games and action anime fans should especially dig Inti Creates' new action-platformer. Not only can you tell the developers put a lot of effort into GUNVOLT, but they certainly did their homework in terms of molding the Mega Man formula into something entirely different and fresh.